A thread.

When this current nightmare is past us, we must not forget that it happened. I have known an America that descended into fascism before, when my entire community on the West Coast, 120,000 of us, were rounded up because leaders made people afraid. We have... /1
to work very hard to ensure history does not repeat, because it will want to. The next time a demagogue comes, with fear and racism as his weapons, we must spot the danger earlier, not grow complacent, not say “both sides are bad.” That is a road to ruin. We must... /2
recommit ourselves, right here and now, to defending our fragile democracy against the forces that rot it from within: misinformation, white supremacy, cult-like adoration of leaders, attacks on expertise and science. We must all become watchers at our posts..../3
and champions of the truth and of democratic principals. That means calling out the cowards who refuse to condemn this attack on our system, and using our greater numbers to vote them out. The next attack will be more deadly, more serious. We must be ready and strong. /end

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More from @GeorgeTakei

27 Oct
The system by which an original minority of privileged, white slave holders could hold on to power in America is known as the Electoral College. And it continues to poison our democracy today. But change is coming. Inexorably, and resoundingly, coming. /1
Very soon, that same Electoral College math, which has handed the White House and the Supreme Court to the political descendants of that original privileged minority, will begin to turn against them, and brutally. Texas looms large. Florida is shifting. /2
Within four years, and perhaps even in 2020, Texas will join the blue state majority and forge an impenetrable electoral one, with 271 electoral college votes out the gate. The GOP knows this, and so it has scrambled to seize what it can, like a robber fleeing a home. /3
Read 6 tweets
22 Oct
With the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett one step closer today, many are wondering what any of us can do, with Roe v. Wade under threat as never before. I have a few thoughts, which I’ll share in this thread. /1
For many years now, we have seen how conservatives and anti-abortion radicals have trained their sights not only on overturning Roe, but on severely limiting local access to reproductive services, in some cases effectively eliminating it as an option altogether. /2
The right has long understood that politics is local, and that if they want to achieve the kinds of restrictions they envision, they would need to take over state houses, governorships and courthouses around the country. In this they were very effective. / 3
Read 6 tweets
28 Sep
Deep diving a bit, the NYT follow up report notes that Trump has reduced his income by claiming all manner of “consulting fees” as expenses. But the investigation discovered a striking match. /1
Trump’s private records show that his company paid a very specific $747,622 in fees to an unnamed consultant for hotel projects in Hawaii and Vancouver, British Columbia. /2
Guess who owns that company? Ivanka Trump’s public disclosure forms — which she filed when joining the White House staff in 2017 — reveal she had received an IDENTICAL amount through a consulting company she co-owned. /3
Read 4 tweets
14 Sep
I have heard many say that never in their lives have they experienced such fear, that the America they know might be gone for good. Here’s why I have hoped with my head high and my eyes focused ahead. /1 #MondayMotivation #50DaysLeft
When I was just 5 years old, soldiers marched up to our home in Los Angeles and ordered us out. We had done nothing wrong, our crime was looking like the people who had bombed Pearl Harbor. The laws and the Constitution failed to protect us. /2
No one dared stand up for us then. Politicians on both sides, from FDR in the White House to Earl Warren in Sacramento, took advantage of the fear and racism for their own political gain. We lost our home. Our friends lost businesses. We all lost our freedom. /3
Read 10 tweets
16 Aug
People love to say that the USPS operates at a loss. Supporters urge us to go buy stamps. But this won't solve anything. The losses are driven by those trying to dismantle the USPS. In 2006, Congress passed a law that imposed extraordinary costs on the U.S. Postal Service. / 1
The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act required the USPS to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, and they had to do it for 75 years into the future. This burden applies to no other federal agency or private corporation. /2
If the costs of this mandate were removed from the USPS financial statements, it would have reported operating profits in each of the last six years, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. /3
Read 4 tweets
13 Aug
Let me tell you about when we took on Mike Pence in Indiana. He had just signed a "Religious Freedom" law that made it legal for establishments to discriminate against serving LGBTQs based on the sincere religious beliefs of the proprietors. / 1
Pence did it with the full backing of religious bigots who had worked hard to help get him to the governor's office. Business leaders didn't like the law. It made Indiana look backward, and it give bigotry the gloss of official sanction. So we started #BoycottIndiana. / 2
We got it trending on social media. And it worked. Big companies threatened to pull out of Indiana. Other states condemned the law. Mike Pence began back-pedaling, to the dismay of his conservative religious allies. In the end, he was forced to "qualify" the law. / 3
Read 5 tweets

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